1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data recording medium, a reading device for reading the data recording medium, a recording device for reading the data recording medium and recording data to another medium, and methods thereof for preventing forgery of paper money or securities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, for example, the international patent publication WO 00/34923 discloses a method for preventing forgery of sheet-like paper money or securities by using built-in electronic circuits. In this method, an electronic chip is put in a sheet-like bill or securities document, and the visible information printed on the bill or securities document is encrypted and stored in the chip. When using the bill or security, a forgery can be found by comparing the visible information and the data stored in the chip, therefore preventing forgery. This method has been attracting attention as an effective way of preventing forgery of paper money or securities. This method was reported by the Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Evening Edition, May 24, 2002). According to this method, by storing different numbers in the built-in chips of different bills, it is possible to immediately identify bills that do not have such built-in chips or those having false numbers printed thereon.
Further, because this method makes it possible to pursue the distribution channels of the bills used in crime-related transactions, and to prevent money laundering, efforts are being made to put it into practical use.
However, in the above forgery prevention method, one has to compare the visible information printed on the bill or securities document and the data stored in the built-in electronic circuit chip. Usually, the visible information is obtained by scanning the bill or securities document with a scanner, so depending on performance of the scanner, the accuracy of reading the image of the visible information on the bill or securities document changes greatly, consequently, it becomes difficult to confirm whether the visible information is identical to the data stored in the electronic circuit chip.